Papal Visits to Marian Apparition Sites

Over the centuries, Our Lord and Savior, Our Blessed Mother, and several saints have appeared in many locations around the world with timely messages of hope, faith and warning for humanity.   These apparition sites include such well known ones as Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje and lesser known ones such as Banneux, Belgium, Siluva, Lithuania, and Pontmain, France.  The Catholic Church, at both the diocesan and Vatican levels, vigorously scrutinizes and evaluates each reported supernatural occurrence.   Only a select few such as Fatima and Lourdes have received Vatican approval.   

 
One of the most powerful affirmations of the validity of a supernatural visit from Heaven occurs when a Pope visits the site of the apparition.   Only a very select few apparition sites have been visited by a Pope.  

 
Mexico City, Mexico – 

While on his way to Mass on 9 December 1531, our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico and directed him to request that the Bishop build a shrine there.   Juan Diego did as instructed but the skeptical Bishop asked for a sign as proof.  Three days later, Mary appeared again to Juan Diego and told him to pick flowers that were in bloom despite it being winter.  Again, Juan Diego did as instructed, gathering the flowers in his Tilma and taking them to the Bishop.  When he opened his Tilma for the Bishop, not only did the flowers fall out but an image of the Blessed Virgin was miraculously on the Tilma.   A chapel was constructed where Mary had requested and later a beautiful basilica was also built there.  As a result of Mary’s appearance at Tepeyac under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, millions of native peoples of Mexico abandoned their barbaric religious practices of human sacrifice and embraced Christianity.  

The Guadalupe Basilica has been visited by two Popes:  Saint John Paul II and Francis.  Pope Francis visited in February 2016 while Pope St. John Paul II visited there four times (1979, 1990, 1999 and 2002).  During his 1990 visit, the Pope beatified Juan Diego and twelve years later, the Pope canonized him.  

 
Paris, France - 

In the chapel of a convent on Rue du Lac in Paris, Our Blessed Mother appeared to a religious sister Catherine Laboure of the Daughters of Charity on 27 November 1830.  During this apparition, Our Blessed Mother commissioned her to have an image of her and the Sacred Heart of Jesus and her Immaculate Heart that has come to be known as the Miraculous Medal. The Miraculous Medal also has the inscription “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.”   When the future Pope Saint John XXIII was Apostolic Nuncio in Paris, he frequently prayed in the Miraculous Medal Chapel.  Pope Saint John Paul II visited the Miraculous Medal Shrine Chapel on 31 May 1980. 

 
Knock, Ireland -  

On 21 August 1879, fifteen people witnessed an apparition of Our Blessed Mother, Saint Joseph and Saint John the Apostle in the village of Knock in County Mayo, Ireland.   The apparition also included a lamb and cross on an altar, which symbolized the Holy Eucharist and Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Only Pope Saint John Paul II has visited the Knock Shrine, doing so on 30 September 1979.

 
Lourdes, France –   

In 1858, Our Blessed Mother appeared to a peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous in the French village of Lourdes.  On one occasion, Our Blessed Mother directed Bernadette to dig in the earth, and thus revealed the location of a miraculous spring.  Since then,  thousands of sick and injured people have been healed at Lourdes.  “The Lady,” as Bernadette routinely referred to her, eventually revealed herself to be “the Immaculate Conception,” thus confirming the dogma promulgated by Blessed Pope Pius IX several years prior.  

 
Two Popes have visited Lourdes:  Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.  However, seven future Popes visited Lourdes before becoming pope, namely Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, Saint Paul VI (two visits), and Blessed John Paul I.  Pope Saint John XXIII visited Lourdes while serving as Apostolic Nuncio to France.  On that occasion, he consecrated the Basilica of Saint Pius X.  In addition, Pope Saint John Paul II visited Lourdes as a priest in 1947, as Archbishop of Krakow in 1964 and as a Cardinal in 1975.

 
Fatima, Portugal – 

In 1917, Lucia Santos, and Francisco and Jacinta Marto had a series of six extraordinary encounters with the Mother of Our Savior near Fatima, Portugal.  With the world embroiled in its first horrific World War, the Blessed Mother’s appearances and her messages of repentance and faith were both timely and desperately needed by humankind.  Our Lady’s appearances at Fatima culminated on 13 October 1917 at which time over 70,000 persons present witnessed the Sun miraculously change colors and dance in the sky.  Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta saw not only Mary as Our Lady of Mount Carmel but St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus as well.

 
Fatima has been visited the most times by Popes when they were Pope.  Pope Saint Paul VI visited Fatima on 13 May 1967 for the 50th Anniversary of the first appearance there.  Pope Saint John Paul II visited Fatima three times:  13 May 1982, 13 May 1991, and 13 May 2000.  He visited Fatima on the first anniversary of being nearly assassinated in Saint Peter’s Square.  He attributed his survival to the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima.  On 13 May 2000, he celebrated the beatification of the Fatima visionaries Francisco and Jacinta Marto in Fatima.  Pope Benedict XVI visited Fatima on 13 May 2010.  Most recently, Pope Francis visited Fatima on 13 May 2017 for the 100th Anniversary of the first apparition. 

 
Three future Popes visited Fatima prior to becoming Pope.  Blessed Pope John Paul I visited Fatima on 10 June 1977 while serving as Patriarch of Venice.  Pope Saint John XXIII visited Fatima on 13 May 1956 while serving as Patriarch of Venice.  Pope Benedict XVI visited Fatima as a cardinal on 13 October 1996.  

 
“The message of Fátima is a call to conversion, alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the "dragon" whose "tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth" (Rv 12: 4),” said Pope St. John Paul II in his Homily for the Beatification Mass of Jacinta and Francisco Marto.   “Man's final goal is heaven, his true home, where the heavenly Father awaits everyone with his merciful love.

Given his devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, I would expect that Pope Leo XIV will be the fifth Pope to visit Fatima at some point in his Pontificate.

 
Over time, there have been numerous apparitions involving Our Savior, Our Blessed Mother, and saints.  A select few have been approved by the Vatican.  Only five have been visited by a Pope.  These are the apparition events that we should pay most attention to.